Posted June 20, 2015 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments
This week, I got some major goals done — the book I was ghostwriting was finished (well, one of them), I got a lot of transcription work done, and I got an assignment done. So I was allowed some books, and much deserved they were. Also, one of them was bought with a voucher my mother gave me a few weeks(!) ago. Aaand then was Support Tor Day (warning: link to Vox Day’s blog; no, he isn’t supporting Tor, he’s calling for a boycott, which to me is tantamount to asking all reasonable people to support them).
Plus, Susanna Kearsley sent me an Amazon voucher to make up for me getting smacked with a customs charge for a book she sent me. I don’t have that book in my hands yet, but I do have a couple of her others. I had some of these from the library, but…
Excite!
Comics
I’m not sure how I feel about this event, but still. Ms Marvel. Yay.
Tags: books, comics, Garth Nix, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves, Susanna Kearsley
Posted June 19, 2015 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments
Well, thanks to Ryan (SpecFic Junkie), looks like I’m joining in with MotherReader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge. My 48 hours will run from 6pm Belgian time 11pm on Friday to 6pm 11pm Belgian time on Sunday, and I’m not aiming too high in terms of participation — I know I’ve got a chemistry assignment to finish, prep for a trip to Canada, and also, you know, time to spend with my partner. And sleep. And the bunny. Obviously 12 hours is the minimum bracket, so I’m aiming for at least that.
Watch this space for updates! I have no particular stack, but the books will come from my June TBR, or fill one of my three remaining wildcard spots.
Blogging stuff: 4 hours.
Talking about books: 2 hours.
Reading: 6 hours. Finished Ancillary Justice; started The Philosopher Kings; read a couple of short stories.
Reading for assignment: pretty much 12 hours, no kidding. So much science.
I am hesitant to count the blogging stuff because yeesh, self, that is a lot of time noodling around on blogs. And the assignment stuff also includes doing math and rearranging equations, so it doesn’t count really.
Tags: readathon
Posted June 16, 2015 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments
This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is all about the summer TBR! Because I type this up in advance, I might have had chance to read some of these already, but even so, here goes a list of books I’m highly anticipating reading sometime this summer, particularly with my long flight to Canada to encourage reading time.
- Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I picked it up recently so… why not?
- Dorothy Must Die, Danielle Paige. My sister made me buy this because of Ollie the educated monkey, so I’m going to have to read this soon before she kills me and pries it from my cold dead hands.
- The Lions of Al-Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay. This is a reread, and I really must get round to it, because I do love GGK’s work, and I’m determined to finish rereading all of it in publication order before I finally get to read River of Stars.
- An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield. His videos and stuff on the ISS were really cool, and generally he seems like a pretty fun guy. And I’ve had this for ages.
- Landline, Rainbow Rowell. Whyyy haven’t I got round to this yet?
- Signal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Recommended by someone in the Cardiff SF/F book club, and I just bought it, so hopefully I’ll get to it soon.
- Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor. High time I finished reading this trilogy, I know!
- The Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff. Not only have I got this, it’s on a list of books recommended by friends. So high time I got round to it. Which is a theme on this list, it seems…
- Fair Game, Josh Lanyon. Both books in this series, really. They’re fun and I don’t know why I haven’t read them already, especially since I had the second one as an ARC.
- The Bards of Bone Plain, Patricia McKillip. I had to pick at least one of her books. <3
What about everybody else? Are you keeping your list full of current books, or are you trying to catch up?
Tags: books, Top Ten Tuesday
Posted June 13, 2015 by Nicky in General / 8 Comments
I continued my very good behaviour this week by not buying anything. I did grab the trade of Thor: Goddess of Thunder, but I already has the single issues, so I’m counting it as a gift for my partner, who I will be with by this evening! Whoop. So I just have comics this week, including the new Carol Corps one from Kelly Sue, which I nearly missed but for a random tweet about it.
Nope, there are no female heroes in comics, nope, don’t know what you’re talking about…
Tags: comics, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves
Posted June 6, 2015 by Nicky in General / 18 Comments
I’ve been very, very restrained this week, which I suppose makes up for other weeks! Just one ARC, The Killing Kind, and one issue of a comic.
See, Mum? Lisa? This is proof I am starving for lack of books.
Don’t look at me like that.
Tags: books, Chris F. Holm, comics, Marvel, Stacking the Shelves
Posted June 2, 2015 by Nicky in General / 15 Comments
This week’s theme is books you’d like to see as movies/tv shows. The proviso here is that I would want appropriate casting, e.g. not a white man for Ged or Patriot.
- A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin. Shush. There hasn’t been one. Doesn’t exist.
- Captain Marvel. Sooner than planned, please. And keep in the recent bit about her dating Rhodey!
- Young Avengers. You’ve got all the ingredients ready, Marvel. Dooo iiiiiittttt.
- Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas. It could be really epic, and it’d require a female lead who could do stunts and would need a good range of acting skills.
- A Natural History of Dragons, Mary Brennan. I’m not sure how well it’d translate to the big screen, but again, it’d require a female lead and it’d be a little bit like Walking With Dinosaurs, only dragons and fiction.
- The Winter King, Bernard Cornwell. Do Arthur right!
- Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay. In the right hands, it would be beautiful.
- Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Female lead who is both a reluctant hero type and a baker. Interesting vampire lore, gorgeous imagery. It’d be amazing, right?
- Farthing, Jo Walton. Could serve as a timely warning to a country embracing conservatism right now, too.
- Bloodshot, Cherie Priest. Weird found-family dynamics, kickass female lead, ex-Navy SEAL drag queen? Okay, there’d be so many ways for them to mess it up, but we’re talking an ideal world here, and it would be so very right.
Gaah, gimme them. Nowww.
Tags: books, Cherie Priest, comics, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jo Walton, Marvel, Mary Brennan, Robin McKinley, Sarah J. Maas, Top Ten Tuesday, Ursula Le Guin
Posted June 1, 2015 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments
As I selected the books for this list, I’d finished reading 17 of the 20 books I picked for my May TBR, plus 5 wildcards. And here I was thinking that I suck at to read lists. Clearly I just need to give myself a bit of leeway and public accountability.
That being said, here we go! I’ve already kind of started on this, as of May 31st, because I was feeling just a bit too constrained by my May list.
ARCs
The City, Stella Gemmell. (I know. I’m late.)- The Philosopher Kings, Jo Walton. (I’m gonna get to this one on time! I am!)
- Knight’s Shadow, Sebastien de Castell. (Only a little late!)
The Girl at Midnight, Melissa Grey.Joan of Arc, Helen Castor.
Library
- Named of the Dragon, Susanna Kearsley.
- Heartless, Gail Carriger.
- Timeless, Gail Carriger.
Ring of Bright Water, Gavin Maxwell.The Compatibility Gene, Daniel M. Davis.
Owned
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli.Fire, Kristin Cashore.- The Wrath and the Dawn, Renee Ahdieh. (Eee!)
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie. (I know, I know.)- Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor. (It’s about time.)
Rereads (including books counting as owned-unread because of ebook duplicates)
- Abhorsen, Garth Nix.
After the Golden Age, Carrie Vaughn.Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke.Roadside Picnic, Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. (Book club read! My suggestion, so I figured I’d better refamiliarise.)Voices, Ursula Le Guin.
Catching up (from last month’s TBR)
A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab.- The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley.
- Of Noble Family, Mary Robinette Kowal.
Wildcards
The Hawley Book of the Dead, Chrysler Szarlan. (ARC.)- The Killing Kind, Chris F. Holm. (ARC.)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie. (Owned.)- ?
- ?
As before, graphic novels don’t count, because I tend to read them in one sitting anyway. If I finish fifteen of the non-wildcard books and I’ve run out of wildcards, I’ll probably let myself have some more. I didn’t last month, but that’s because I reached 15/20 quite near the end of the month. With a long trip to Belgium and then to Canada in my future for June, maybe I’ll read more.
Tags: books, TBR
Posted May 31, 2015 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments
Well, both the reading and the posting for my month of reading only female authored books are done. I also didn’t buy books by men or borrow books by men from the library during the month, and made sure all my ‘Flashback Friday’ posts were of books by female authors. Did I notice a change? Well, no, not really. Once or twice I had to remind myself, and put off reading something or other until the month was over. I don’t think I’d want to extend the month any longer; I read a lot of female authors anyway, and there’s so much worthwhile stuff out there that isn’t written by women.
Still, it was interesting. Browsing the shelves at Caerphilly Library, realising that I had to go for three shelves in the SF&F section until I found a female author; looking for books about science written by women and finding them thin on the ground; noticing my own dismissal of certain genres (paranormal romance, for example) because I just assume they’re all the same. Even though I’ve read some and really enjoyed them.
It wasn’t a struggle to read female authors only for a month, but the change in focus was interesting. I might do it with other groups in future.
What about you? Did you notice that I was only posting reviews of books by female authors in May?
Tags: books, challenge
Posted May 30, 2015 by Nicky in General / 24 Comments
I’ve been a bit naughty in the last week. In my defence, there was a signing in a bookshop and my sister insisted I get one of the books below. Uh. That’s a good defence, right?
Acquisitions
I forgot about the issues with Full Fathom Five when I picked up Dorothy Must Die; that was the one my sister wanted me to get, because of Ollie the talking monkey. I feel a little bad about that.
Arrivals
These have been on order for a while and finally arrived this week!
Library
Those with long memories will know I actually owned the first four already (and I’ve read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell before), but I thought I’d grab them in dead tree to see if it would poke me to get on with it and read them!
So overall, a very satisfying haul for me! Must put some of these on the June TBR list, since the May one was a success for me. How’s everyone else been doing? Lots of new books? Exciting library trips? Self-control and budgeting?
Tags: books, Stacking the Shelves
Posted May 26, 2015 by Nicky in General / 12 Comments
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “beach books”. Which is not something I really do, so instead I shall pick the kinds of books I like to relax with. Whether that looks like your beach reads or not, I don’t know!
- Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal. Or anything in that series, but the first one is the lightest and closest to Austen and the like.
- This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart. Or any of her mysteries — they have an amazing sense of place, it’s like going on holiday without leaving home.
- The Rose Garden, Susanna Kearsley. Another one with a great sense of place, this one in Cornwell. It’s not all happy, but the romance is sweet and it has a happy ending.
- The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer. I have a huge soft spot for these romances. I loved Sophy in particular, though I’m also a fan of…
- The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer. Which is more of a mystery/adventure than some of the primarily society type ones.
- Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews. Light and compulsively readable.
- Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers. Okay, I think you need the background of previous books, but I love the first line and the rest doesn’t disappoint: “The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth.”
- Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers. For Harriet Vane in the prime spot, with her final answer to Lord Peter’s proposals at the end of the book… Plus, tons of smart women in academia.
- Jhereg, Steven Brust. It’s a fun first book of the series, it raced past me, and it’s really easy to read.
- Soulless, Gail Carriger. Fluffy fun with werewolves.
I don’t think that’d be a bad selection for the beach, right?
Tags: books, Dorothy L. Sayers, Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, Susanna Kearsley, Top Ten Tuesday
